A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and H S Bedi found no merit in the plea.

Vikas Yadav had pleaded that the appeal against his conviction in the Katara murder case should be heard either by the Allahabad High Court or any other High Court in the country barring the Delhi High Court.

He claimed that his appeal proceedings would not be held in a fair manner in the Delhi High Court due to the "media glare".

On May 30, the Patiala house court have been awarded life sentence to Vikas Yadav, the son of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav.

Vikas and Vishal had allegedly abducted Katara, the son of an IAS officer, from a marriage party in Ghaziabad on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002.

The victim's body was later recovered from a village in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr District.

According to the prosecution, Katara, a business executive, was killed by the two accused, as they did not approve of their sister Bharti Yadav's growing proximity with him.